US couple win US$1.8 million after finding discarded lottery ticket

PHOTO: AFP

A couple from Louisiana have more than a million reasons to be grateful this Thanksgiving after discovering a long lost jackpot-winning lottery ticket with only two weeks left to claim it.

Harold and Tina Ehrenberg found the $1.8 million (S$2.47 million) winning ticket, which won the southern US state's June 6 Lottery Lotto draw, while doing some holiday cleaning.

"We have family coming into town for Thanksgiving, so I was cleaning up the house and found a few lottery tickets on my nightstand that we hadn't checked," Tina said, according to a statement by Louisiana Lottery.

The couple checked the Lottery's website and soon found one of the tickets matched all of the numbers listed, and were able to claim their prize with just two weeks remaining of the 180-day limit

After state and federal taxes, the Ehrenbergs take home $1,274,313, which they plan to put away for their retirement.

"We don't have any plans to buy anything crazy or go on any big trips," Tina said.

A single winner in the South Carolina town of Simpsonville took home a massive $1.5 billion in the Mega Millions US lottery jackpot last month, dwarfing a previous record set in March 2012 at $656 million.